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Saturday, October 12, 2013

Playing Around with Chocolate for your Halloween Party

Halloween is not just trick or treating, not just dressing up, not just a month of horror specials on TV. I'm sure many of my readers in the English speaking world have also been to a Halloween party at least once because the spooky holiday is now celebrated around the world. Today we're going to look at one possible chocolate treat that could function as both food and activity for your Halloween party. From the UK we have Magic Choc Starter Packs. If you'd like to see some models of what can be made you can check this link or just look at our creations in this review.

I had five helpers for this test. Everyone please say hello to my helpers Tom, Elizabeth, Josh, A, and E. (I'm not going to include the children's names simply because I don't think that is appropriate online but their father gave permission for the photo of all the helpers.)

This is a moldable chocolate that is real Belgian chocolate without unnecessary added fats though it does contains glucose syrup as well as milk and soy if any of those are a concern for you. Each box has 50g milk chocolate (24% cocoa solids), 35g white chocolate (21% cocoa solids and real cocoa butter, too), and 15g dark chocolate 36% cocoa solids), 1 anti-bac handwhip, and a little booklet with two model ideas -- puppy and rocket. There are also guides to making different types of animals and objects on the main website if you need inspiration (we used the ghost model for this halloween feature) and activities kids may enjoy online.

There are three steps listed on the front of box and the website but really there are five steps to using the kits that you find on the back of the box.

1) Wash your hands well with soap and water. You'll want to repeat this as you make models we discovered.

2) Use the handwipe to clean your hands.

3) Squish the chocolate discs in your hands but don't mix them together especially if you are using the model guides that came in the box or you got offline or it will be difficult to figure out how much of each variety you need.

4) Shape the chocolate into 1-4 models, ideally you get 4 creations but really it depends on how big you make them, doesn't it? We averaged around 3-4 models and this was with sharing the discs as someone wanted an extra dark one or didn't want their white ones.

5) Eat them!

Everyone had fun, a lot of fun, in fact, I think the adults had more fun though they also took the modeling more seriously requesting a butter knife at one point to help with the detailing. Let me share some of our observations and suggestions after using these in a party setting.

Make sure you use a wipeable tablecloth or table over a washable floor because it does make a bit of a mess and you will drop pieces.

Winning Model voted my Testers

Sit down so you don't get tired out and have some water handy to take sips of but don't add it to the chocolate.

Share your extra discs and help each other out. This is especially important with younger children who may find the disc squishing a bit of a challenge in their smaller, weaker hands.

Form the white chocolate pieces of your creations first because the milk and dark chocolate will discolor them otherwise. Wash your hands between models.

If the modeling chocolate gets too soft just let it set for a few minutes and you can use it again. Make sure you squish even if the images looks like it uses a single disc for part of the object you are making or the pieces will not stick very well.

The dark and white chocolate tasted the most chocolatey but they all had a sort of Tootsie Roll flavor and texture to them. The chocolate tastes best after being used to model so don't eat just the discs.

If our Magic Choc party test sounds like fun to you, you can buy this product online or in a few stores at this link. It was a lot of fun and since it used real chocolate without too many added ingredients it earns a Sacrament Status over all.

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